Hey it's moving day

Hey all, so I have sadly had to move my blog. Blogger.com has served me very well right through our RTW tour and for the last few months back in SA, but I have found another with a few more features and am happy with it for now, but who knows, I may be back!!!

So please update your feed readers or however you read my blog to http://dieterlehmann.wordpress.com .

I am yet to figure our how to send out auto emails when I create a post, so until then, keep checking back - if you're interested that is.

Dieter

Turning the corner

So the big three zero happened over the weekend and the celebration was pretty apt. Had 40 of my closest family and friends round at our house enjoy a glorious and scarce February day in the sun. Thankfully there are another 40 of you over in London or the lamb we had on offer would have scarcely been a appetizer.

Sitting here today, I do feel a little older, if only psychologically, but at the same time ready to impart my wealth of knowledge to anyone that'll listen.

The party went really well apart from a few family related hiccups along the way. Even though the food was such a hit, Celia stole the show with the photo booth that she hired providing endless hours of fun for all and queue longer than the check in at Easyjet. Being the birthday boy, there was no need for any of that waiting and between checking on Patrick and Ricky at the lamb, there were more than enough opportunities for pictures with all my guests.

The day was long and my dad and I prepared the Lamb for the Asado as early as 9:30AM, we had to cut through the ribs in order for it to lay flat on the frame. I then had to practice some carving knife acupuncture and then Pat and I had to Swedish massage kosher coarse salt into the bum, chest and shoulders.


I have to say a special thank you to all that assisted me in making the day work as it was a ton more work than I expected. Celia #1, my parents, dos Santos family (that doesn't count you Sonia), Patrick, Celia #2, Emmanuel, Kiran, Carlos, Ricky, Allister and all of you that did something i never saw, you all deserve a medal, and I could not have done it without you, so thank you!! The rest of you, I could not have a party without people enjoying themselves. Thank you to all that went to the effort to send a video, I had a good laugh and did manage to force out a few tears at the appropriate moments.

I only ended up in the pool once courtesy of a friendly nudge by Peter, we won't mention the thinners he tried to make me drink, but after the numerous Jaegermeisters and Chin-chons, I could no longer blame my red eyes on the smoke from the braai, and soon after that my eyelids ceased to function while I was attempting to engage in conversation on the couch.

Patrick admiring his handiwork

All the chefs quite proud of themselves

Blowing out my birthday candles

A day at the dam

Kiran invited us to celebrate his birthday at the lovely resort of Magaliespark near Hartebeespoort dam. It was a great way to celebrate a Sunday and another year in the life of Pi. Celia and I crazily decided that I should get a round of golf in at the resort before everyone else arrives, and when we woke up at 4:30 in the morning (on a Sunday) , the dogs looked at us like we were a spot crazy.

Regardless, we made our way via a couple unplanned detours and arrived ready for my tee off time only to discover I had brought Annie freaken Liebovitz with me. I could not swing a golf club without her smashing away at that shutter, trying to get that perfect picture of when I connected with the ball. Well I can assure you that after 9 holes, 42 shots and 82 pictures we are still looking for that elusive 'moment of contact' picture. There are still some great pics of my golf swing which look heaps better than the current state it's actually in.

The main thing is that Kiran had a great day and by looking at his face when he got his present from Carlos, he was totally overjoyed. If only all our presents could be this satisfying!

We raced back shortly after lunch in order to get to the first dog training lesson which went great apart from the fact that Turk is the only dog in the class that has absolutely no idea what his name is...

Shrek and Donkey

Back by popular demand



We're taking them for their first training on Sunday which should be very interesting. Just like proud parents we obviously think they are much smarter than all the other dogs and don't actually know what they are going to do with them while they are waiting for the other dogs to learn their stuff.

I know, I know... they grow up so fast...

"Outside of a dog, a book is probably man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

"My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That's almost $7.00 in dog money." -- Joe Weinstein

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." --Ben Williams

South African edition

I thought I would start practising for the new role of the gardener in Desperate Housewives 'South African Edition' where i play the love interest of some hot gold digger. I was going to replace 'hot gold digger' with some famous black actress from our shores, and all I could think of was Charlene Surtie Richards from 'Fiela se Kind' fame, but maybe I don't really want to be her gardener / love interest. If any movie / t.v exec. is reading this however, I am available at weekends and evenings after 3pm to cut lawn for four, five or even six digit sums of money.

Talking about movies, I have gotten my paws on heaps of good movies which I just need to find the time to watch including Seven pounds, Slumdog Millionaire & Gran Torino. I hear Seven Pounds requires a box of tissues, but not in the same way as those German movies that show late at night. Really looking forward to that as Will Smith is a great actor, can hardly put a foot wrong. He was canned for 'I am Legend' by some, but you have to realise what a tough movie that was, in the same way Tom Hanks and a volleyball pulled it off, he managed to pull it off with his dog... erm, you know what I mean.

The advantages of boredom

There are a few good songs out right now, one of them being 'Lily Allen - The Fear', and one not being the new U2 single 'Electrical Storm' - but maybe it's a grower... I never liked Lily Allen before, but this song led me to search for others of hers which I have blatantly passed over, and after listening to some covers she has sung, I then got stuck on listening to covers of great songs, sung a little differently. So to get past the lull of decent post Christmas singles, all these great covers have filled my January stocking. I'll list some below that I (and Carin) have really enjoyed and are getting some serious playtime on my generic mp3 player.

In no particular order

• Alicia Keys - How to save a life
• Natasha Bedingfield - The Scientist
• Keane - With or Without You
• Stereophonics - Nothing compares to you
• The Killers - Romeo and Juliet
• Damien Rice - When Doves Cry

There are a ton more, I know, and I have about 30 tracks now, but these seem to come up the most, and I think it's due to the very London-like weather we seem to be having.

So you see what I do with my 'waiting time'.

Alright guv'

So all has been booked and paid for, time to haul out the diaries, wipe off the dust and write down some dates. To most of you this is no surprise, but Celia and I will be in London in the spring. Our SAA flight touches down at Terminal 2 on the 1st May @ 6:25, but sadly we take off again @ 9:45 on route to Düsseldorf to visit my family for a couple days, and then form there a short train trip to the land of the dyke and more spcifically, the home of the 'red light district', and a couple days with our good friend Ruurd.

That should bring us to Wednesday 6th where we will hopefully be boarding an Easyjet flight to Gatwick, I say hopefully as this last portion of the trip has not been finalised.

Now from here we have two weddings to fit in over the remaining weekends, one of them fortunately being in London.

I'm sure you can see how busy we will be, but one of my main objectives while I am there is to see as many of you as possible, as often as possible!! The other objectives with hopefully fall into place between beers.

Really looking forward to this trip and rolling back the years. I'm sure you can see how much I am missing it. I thought we could maybe catch an evening's Karaoke in Covent Garden or SOHO? (is that place still open). Billy is not invited, he makes the rest of us sound like mutts - i'd like to hear Sam's indo karaoke though.

I will surely chat to you before the time, but until then, i only have one word for you... 'HALT'.



p.s we're off again on the 16th, airport leaving party essential.